Rubber egg??

[e72071]

I have 12 new layers that just started laying within the past 3 or so weeks and all seem to be laying fine. Today I was out with the flock and one of them just laid a rubber egg while she was pecking in the run. I barely realized what it was and just as quickly it was gone. Some of the other girls devoured it.

Here are my questions.

If she just laid the egg with no effort and the others are it, how can I be sure it doesn't continue to happen?

Is it ok that the other girls ate the raw egg? Probably normal but it seems weird to me.

How can I be sure it's not a true medical issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

[barred2rock]

Are you providing calcium in a layer feed or crushed oyster shells? What percent of protein is their feed? Are you keeping to the "rule" of no more than 10% of their diet being of treats?

 

[e72071]

We are still giving them grower feed because we still have 5 girls 10 weeks behind them. We donput out oyster shells as free choice. Do you think that's enough?

 

[barred2rock]

@aart @azygous any ideas?

 

[azygous]

For pullets just beginning to lay, eggs with oddities aren't something to rush to a vet over. Make sure oyster shell is offered free choice even though you may be feeding layer ration. A pullet will be fine-tuning her egg factory and she'll get the kinks worked out soon enough.

I've had chickens for ten years and lots of eggs get accidentally broken in nests. It's normal and natural for chickens to attend to the mess and clean it up very efficiently and helpfully.

Just today, one of my Welsummers, lazy butt that she is, couldn't be bothered with taking her lazy butt into a nest box, and she left her egg on the sand in the run. Usually, the egg lies unmolested until I happen to notice it lying there and pick it up. But somehow it got broken this time, and all that was left was a bit of broken red shell.

Never in those ten years have I had a true egg eater - a hen that opens eggs in a nest box and eats them. Merely seeing a broken egg and eating it does not make a hen into an egg eater. Even most rubber eggs lie untouched and uneaten unless they happen to break.

As for any risk to the health of your chickens by allowing them to eat their own eggs, there normally isn't any. It's a hold-over natural reaction to clean up broken eggs so predators won't be attracted to a brooding nest.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

For pullets just beginning to lay, eggs with oddities aren't something to rush to a vet over. Make sure oyster shell is offered free choice even though you may be feeding layer ration. A pullet will be fine-tuning her egg factory and she'll get the kinks worked out soon enough.

I've had chickens for ten years and lots of eggs get accidentally broken in nests. It's normal and natural for chickens to attend to the mess and clean it up very efficiently and helpfully.

Just today, one of my Welsummers, lazy butt that she is, couldn't be bothered with taking her lazy butt into a nest box, and she left her egg on the sand in the run. Usually, the egg lies unmolested until I happen to notice it lying there and pick it up. But somehow it got broken this time, and all that was left was a bit of broken red shell.

Never in those ten years have I had a true egg eater - a hen that opens eggs in a nest box and eats them. Merely seeing a broken egg and eating it does not make a hen into an egg eater. Even most rubber eggs lie untouched and uneaten unless they happen to break.

As for any risk to the health of your chickens by allowing them to eat their own eggs, there normally isn't any. It's a hold-over natural reaction to clean up broken eggs so predators won't be attracted to a brooding nest.

Agreed on all points.
Even in established layers, the occasional shell-less or soft-shelled egg is nothing to be overly concerned about. There are so many "moving parts" involved in the assembly of each egg that it is amazing it all goes right as often as it does. In new layers, especially, it is not unusual for one or more or the parts to work overtime, not work at all, etc on any given day - resulting in eggs with no yolk or eggs with multiple yolks -- eggs with no shell or eggs with excess deposits from the shell gland.
I, too, have yet to have an egg eater in all my years and all the birds I've had....

 

[e72071]

Thank you all for the info. Hopefully it was the anomaly and it won't become a regular occurrence.